The field of this invention relates to agriculture and more particularly to an apparatus for the separating of earthworms from their bedding.
Earthworm farms are, at the present time, quite common. Such a farm usually takes the form of longitudinal rows of piles of manure and a quantity of earthworms are placed within the pile of manure. The manure is watered frequently and the earthworms proceed to feed on the manure and produce castings (excrement of the earthworm). The earthworm will begin feed at the bottom of the pile and then, after a period of time, will move to the top area of the manure pile.
When the earthworms are in the top area of the manure pile, the top layer of material is removed and the earthworms which have multiplied tremendously in number and have grown to a large size are to be removed from the material of this portion of the pile. At the present time, the normal method for removing the earthworms from the material comprises placing the material in a lighted environment. The worms have a tendency to move away from the light and therefore further down the material so after a period of time the top layer of material is removed which should contain little or no worms and the procedure repeated until there is principally nothing but worms.
This procedure has proved to be undesirable because at this time it is required to separate the larger worms from the smaller worms, the smaller worms to be replaced back into the manure pile to repeat the breeding procedure. The larger worms would then be sold. Commercially to be used for fish bait or other uses.
However, the light affects the skin of the worms and many of the smaller worms will actually be killed. Also, the procedure for extracting the worms is definitely time consuming as it depends upon the movement of the worms themselves.
There is a definite need for the designing of a physical means to separate worms from the castings with only large worms being removed and the smaller worms remaining within the sifted castings which can then be resupplied to a source of food.